Oenanthe pleschanka
Silhouette: PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~30%
The pied wheatear (Oenanthe pleschanka) is a wheatear, a small insectivorous passerine bird that was formerly classed as a member of the thrush family Turdidae, but is now more generally considered to be an Old World flycatcher (family Muscicapidae). This migratory central Asiatic wheatear occurs from the extreme southeast of Europe to China, and has been found wintering in India and northeastern Africa. It is a very rare vagrant to western Europe.
The male is a boldly marked white-and-black bird. The white crown tinged with brown contrasts with the black face and throat and white rump. The female is browner, and the head is washed with sandy buff. Females are darker than the females of the northern wheatear, look smaller and show less white on the rump. The tail feathers are white with characteristic black markings, which form an inverted black "T" pattern that resembles the tail of the western black-eared wheatear. This 14 centimetres (5.5 in) bird nests in open, stony, sparsely vegetated regions, laying four to six eggs in a hole, under a stone or in a rock crevice. The pied wheatear primarily eats insects but will also take seeds.
The genus name Oenanthe is derived... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Awash National Park | 🇪🇹 Ethiopia | |
| 2 | Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park | 🇲🇳 Mongolia | |
| 3 | Samburu National Reserve | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 4 | Tsavo West National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 5 | Meru National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 6 | Tsavo East National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 7 | Mkomazi National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 8 | Nairobi National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 9 | Serengeti National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 10 | Lake Nakuru National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 11 | Ngorongoro Conservation Area | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 12 | Masai Mara National Reserve | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 13 | Kidepo Valley National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 14 | Amboseli National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 15 | Tarangire National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 16 | Queen Elizabeth National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Pied Wheatear sighting in Mkomazi National Park on a given day, based on 9 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 220th most-seen of the 272 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
January–February and October
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Pied Wheatear in Mkomazi National Park on a given day, against under 5% in March–April, June–September and November–December, the lowest months. May has too few records to rate.
Between 3 and 6 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Pied Wheatear sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
7th of 16
Of the 16 parks where we can rate Pied Wheatear sightings, Mkomazi National Park ranks 7th at about 10%. The best odds are in Awash National Park (Ethiopia, about 40%), Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park (Mongolia, about 40%) and Samburu National Reserve (Kenya, about 20%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Pied Wheatear is recorded against all the birds logged in Mkomazi National Park (9 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
